Physical and Human Geography

Breaking it down: Geography is a huge field of study. Need to break it into smaller areas –Physical Geography –Human Geography How do you define each???

First, defining “Geography” Geography is the study of relationships that exist in the environment between people and the land. –How people make use of the earth and how the earth then influences peoples way of life

Physical and Human Geography Sometimes the two overlap and are related They often use the same set of geographic skills and standards Both look at GEO from “what is there, why there, why care?”

Physical Geography: “The stage where human geography takes place” Elements of geography that humans saw when they first came to a place They are also elements in the news – Example: Hurricane Katrina

Physical Elements: Includes: –landforms (mountains, plateaus, and plains) –vegetation (trees, grasses, plants) –soil –rock –the earth’s movements –bodies of water –Climate (temp, rain, snow, hail, tornadoes, etc)

Importance of Physical Geo: Determines the following: –Where we live –How many people can live in one place –The kinds of food we will eat –The type of homes we will build –What we will wear

Importance of physical geography to the First Nations People They learned to adapt and use the physical geography around them, wasting as little as possible »Examples »The Inuit made their homes from snow and used animals for food and clothing »The Plains made their homes from animal skins and wooden poles and hunted the bison, using every piece of the bison

Human Geography: People and Culture is the main focus Looks at how the world is physically arranged (creation of countries, provinces, and cities) Looks at how humans have altered and changed the original surroundings (roads, homes, shopping centers, etc) Looks at the distribution and interactions of cultural groups.

Cultural Geography: Human geographers will look at components that make up cultures: –Demography (the study of people) –Religion –Agriculture –Politics –Social interactions –Economics –Music –Language –Architecture –Etc…

How has the human geography around our school changed over the years? First Nations living in the area Farming area with arrival of the Europeans Garbage dump/hill School and residential areas